


Netflix and Bonding

by uptheladder



Category: The Get Down (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, M/M, Multi, there aren't any spoilers of Luke Cage
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-05
Updated: 2016-10-05
Packaged: 2018-08-19 11:19:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,287
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8204105
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/uptheladder/pseuds/uptheladder
Summary: The Get Down Brothers gather at the Kiplings to binge watch Luke Cage.





	

**Author's Note:**

> disclaimer: Mylene isn’t actually in the fic but she’s talked about/mentioned which means that Mylene/Shao/Zeke are only mentioned/implied. I don’t wanna mislead anyone lol.
> 
> This adorable idea came to mind, and it was just gonna be a headcanon, but I liked it so much I decided to write it out. They’re all in their early 20s besides Boo Boo and Napoleon. I say the n-word a few times (I'm Black) and there's some cussing. 
> 
> I hope y’all enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it!

The Get Down Brothers are camped out at the Kipling’s. The 60-inch flat screen mounted on the wall is lit with the homepage of Ra Ra’s Netflix account, waiting for someone to press play on the Smart TV remote. The Brothers had all decided on binge-watching Luke Cage as soon as the Netflix original series dropped. The nerdy Black boys were all excited to see one of their favorite comics come to life from off the page, especially during a time where they wanted to escape a world that desperately needed an indestructible Black superhero.

“Aye, Ra, don’t forget my beer,” Shao calls out from the living room as Ra Ra gathers their snacks in the kitchen.

“Come get it yaself, nigga! My hands is full.”

Shao huffs as he gets up from his comfortable seat on the couch when the doorbell rings. No one else seems to notice with Napoleon and Boo Boo typing away on their electronic devices. “Well, I guess I’ll get it,” he announces, but no one pays him any attention. “How am I a supposed to be guest, but answering the door and grabbing my own drinks?”

“You ain’t no guest, B. You hear more than me,” Boo respond to the question Shao mumbled to himself, never looking up from the game on his phone.

“Oh, so now ya ass can hear.”

“Fuck up, crybaby, you damn near at the door already.”

“You lucky I’m too far away or I’da knocked ya li’l ass out, munchkin.”

“Yeah, whatever.”

That li’l bad ass gotta mouth on him, Shao thinks with a chuckle. “Damn, hold on,” he shouts at the person’s persistent knocking. He snatches the door open with a mug that quickly melts away when he sees the curly, black fro framing Zeke’s face. “Booooks, I thought you wasn’t gonna make it, man. I’m surprised My let you come out since it’s y’alls date night.”

“What I look like missin’ Luke Cage?”

Shao chuckles, nodding his head. “True, true.” He steps aside to let Zeke in before locking the door behind him.

When Shao turns back around, Zeke embraces him into a hug. “You look good,” his usual deep voice is an octave lower as he whispers in his ear, sending a shiver down Shaolin’s spine. Then Zeke nuzzles his face into the crook of his boyfriend’s neck, breathing deeply. “Mmm…smell even better.” When they pull apart, Zeke watches Shao in amusement. The warm undertones in the rich, brown skin burn red and he smiles so hard that the one dimple on the right side of his cheek appears. “Is that the cologne I bought you?”

“Yeah,” he answers softly, but internally he’s cursing himself. Shao’s the perfect balance of calm, cool, collected, and outgoing. He’s the life of the party everyone wants to be around, the go-getter everyone looks up to, and the trendsetter everyone wishes they were cool enough to be. Shaolin didn’t have to try hard, though; it’s naturally who he is. The cool kid who breaks boundaries. But when he’s around Books, it’s a different story. He turns into a shy, blubbering idiot who can’t even control the muscles in his face. The smile comes so naturally, no matter how hard he tries to fight it. He hates that feeling—feeling like he’s not in control. He feels loose, like he’s floating almost. He doesn’t mind the floating, though. It reminds him of flying. He always envied his pigeons for having the ability, but Zeke made it possible to get some semblance of flight. He now knows it feels like your stomach clawing for air, like light taking the place of oxygen, like bass vibrating through your pores.

Just when he thinks he’s about to lose cool points for acting like such a softy, he decides to play Zeke at his own game for once. Cooly, he leans against the doorframe then licks his lips slowly as he gives him a once-over. A pair of distressed, dark-wash skinny jeans sit right at his narrow hips, not sagging too much. Like the nerd he is, he has on a blue Luke Cage shirt atop of a long-hem white tee that’s exposed, with a black leather jacket to complete his look. On his feet are a pair of black and white Jordan’s, with splotches of primary colors, tying the outfit together.

As expected, Zeke is caught off guard. Shaolin smirks at this. “You look good, too, but I guess I should thank myself since you stole my whole style.”

“Nigga, what? Ain’t nobody stuntin’ you, B.”

“Is that not my jacket? Did I not pick them shoes out for you? Deadass, all these niggas is my sons.”

“You so damn cocky.”

“I talk like this cuz I can back it up,” he sings the Beyoncé hit in a smooth baritone that leaves goosebumps on Zeke’s skin. “I gotta big ego, such a huge ego, but you love my big ego.”

Zeke is the one to blush now, appearing much more visible on his light brown skin. He shakes his head with his signature dopey grin on his face. “Iight, I’m done fuckin’ witchu, man.”  
  
“So you can dish it, but you can’t take it?” Shao laughs as he throws an arms around Zeke’s neck, guiding them from the foyer and deeper into the four-bedroom house. Business took off for Adele when she started a line of natural hair products, and the Kipling family moved from the corner lot they had always called home, into a nice house across town. At first, the Kipling siblings were opposed to the idea of starting a new school and not being able to see their best friends as often. However, the new house gave them their own individual rooms, with Dizz claiming the basement as his room, and they eventually worked their schedules around to still hangout with their friends.

Zeke is met with a chorus of greetings when they make it to the living room, and goes around giving everyone dap. “Hey, Zeke, you get the chips and salsa?”Ra Ra asks from the doorway of the kitchen and living room.

“Yup, right here.” He holds up the bag containing the homemade salsa Mrs. Cruz made. “You need help in the kitchen?”

“Yeah, since none of these lazy bums are helpin’.”

“Didn’t I tell you lemme finish this level and I’ll be in there?”

“Boo Boo, you been tryna beat that level all day. By now you should now you suck, big fella. You not a gamer, big fella.”

“Shut the fuck up,” he responds to the laughter around the room. “And I don’t know why you over there kiki-ing, Leon. Cuz I might suck at this game but you suck at life. How you skateboard into a damn construction site? Did you not see the caution tape and that big ass hole in the ground? Ol’ doofus, head ass.”

“Get a new joke, my guy. You said the same shit earlier today with ya lame ass.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” he dismissed with a wave of his hand. “Maybe if you stop tryna be like Shaolin, ya dumb ass can stop breaking limbs, Napoleon Crap-tastic.”

“Aye, Boo, don’t be hatin’ on Leon cuz you regret passin’ up the opportunity to be my protégé.”

“Fuck outta here, nigga. If you get ya head out ya ass long enough, you’ll realize ain’t nobody checkin’ for you.”

“Damn, Shao,” Zeke laughs as he puts a closed fist in front of his mouth. “He just came at ya neck, son.”

“Stay ya goofy ass over there, Books.”

“That’s all you got? A sixteen-year-old got you tripped up, fam?”

“Shut up, big head.” Shao playfully shoves Zeke, then points a finger at Boo. “You just keep addin’ to ya ass whoopin’, B.”

“Man, if you don’t take ya fake karate ass on somewhere with that bullshit.”

“Yo, I’m a black belt now,” Shao emphasizes by pounding a fist against his palm with each syllable. “I ain’t on that fake karate shit no more, B. You mufuckas gon’ start respectin’ me.” His slight outburst only tickles the group more. Shao grunts, but is soon cackling along. “Man, fuck all y’all,” he gets one last diss out before walking into the kitchen, laughter, Ra Ra, and Zeke following after him. He grabs a beer from the fridge, then leans against the counter right next to it before taking a sip.

“What you need me to do?” Zeke asks as he leans against the kitchen island, opposite of Shao.

Ra Ra tends to the sizzling chicken in the deep fryer before looking back at Zeke. “Just pile the food on a tray and stuff.” He sticks his pinky into his buffalo sauce and tastes it. He smacks his mouth, realizing he’s content with the way it turned out.

“Yo, Ra, when you gon’ tell me what you put in ya sauce?”

He smiles, shaking his head. “It’s called a secret recipe for a reason, Shao.”

“Well you needa bottle that shit, be the next Sweet Baby Ray’s,” Shao says, referring to the Black-owned business known for their barbecue sauce.

“Real shit,” Zeke cosigns. “Make Kipling even more of a household name.” They chuckle at this. Everyone in the family is known for something. Dizz has local recognition for his art pieces, like his graffitied Black Lives Matter mural; Yolanda is involved in local politics and community organizations, one which she created herself that gives Black girls and women a safe space to share their experiences, freely express their emotions, fellowship, and be creative; Ra Ra’s famed for his hilarious video skits, which often featured Boo, Zeke, and Shao; and the youngest Kipling is a hotshot ball player, destined for a Division I college team, or even the pros.

“Yeah, I don’t know,” he uneasily responds to their suggestions, “maybe, man.”

“You still thinkin’ about culinary school?” Shao asks while watching him take the last batch of chicken from the fryer.

“Yeah, but my parents will kill me for wasting money on two years at Syracuse.”

“It’s not a waste, Ra,” Zeke counters and Shao nods in agreement as they arrange the finger foods onto a large tray. “Nobody really knows what they want to do right out of high school, and it’s insane for society to expect us to. You’re still figuring yourself out, let alone tryna decide the rest of your life.”

“Zeke’s right. Plus, it’ll save them money in the long run if you dropout now rather than wait another year. You’ll be miserable for not doin’ what you love. Cooking’s obviously your passion, Ra, and you’re good at too.”

“What twenty-year-old, self-taught home cook knows how to make a perfect beef Wellington? You can beat most of them people on Chopped on your worst day, bruh.”

The tag-team of inspiration that Zeke and Shao exchanged lifts his spirit. The decision to stay or leave Syracuse had been weighing heavily on his mind, and his friends had just pushed him to make the decision he feels best suits his wants and passion. “Okay. I’ll tell them as soon as they get back from Atlanta. Can’t hurt to see what they say, right?”

“Exactly!” Each of their faces light up, happy for Ra’s revelation.

“Yo, hurry up with the food!” Napoleon calls out from the living room and Boo’s voice is right behind him.

“We hungry, B!”

“Yo, deadass, keep talkin’ shit, B, and y’all ungrateful asses won’t be eatin’,” Shao yells back. “Damn,” he starts with a shake of his head, “was we that bad as kids?”

“Ya wild ass was,” Zeke answers with a grin as memories resurfaced.

“Why you say it like we wasn’t 16 four, five years ago?”

“A lot can happen in four years.”

“Yeah, like, I never thought I’d see the day you and Mylene would get along.”

Shao chuckles at Ra’s statement. “Me either.” The two became great friends while attending the same college. The small liberal arts college made it impossible for the two to not run into each other. As fate would have it, Mylene and Shao lived on the same floor of their door room freshman year, right across from one another. It didn’t help that Zeke was his roommate, and Mylene was constantly in their room. Her constant presence soon softened his resolve towards her, and he realized she wasn’t half bad. Plus, their majors had them running in the same circles. With Shao majoring in sound recording technology, and Mylene’s major in musical theatre, he often helps her record, produce, and edit projects. The two are also minoring in business, often sharing a class or two each semester.

“Nah, I knew they would,” Zeke says with a bright, proud smile. “They just needed to realize that they were more alike than they were different.” Indeed, it was her ambition, passion, and creativity that resonated with him and they bonded over that, as well as their love for music (and Zeke).

“That’s the homie now, though.”

“Why didn’t y’all like each other in the first place?”

Shao shrugs. “Dumb shit. We was both being selfish and stupid, but we, uh…we settled our differences and came to an agreement.” Zeke and Shao exchange knowing looks and sly grins that Ra Ra picks up on.

These two think they’re so slick.

“Mufuckas is starvin’ and y’all in here cakin’ and shit,” Boo Boo says upon walking into the kitchen with Napoleon beside him.

Shaolin throws a chip at him. “Shut up, and help us bring the food to the living room.”

“Did y’all start without me?” Dizzee’s voice throws everyone off. For a second, they all look at him like they’ve seen a ghost before crowding around him. They were all surprised and excited to see the eldest Kipling brother. Dizz has been interning with a cinematographer for a show out in Harlem, and this is the first time the crew has seen him in months. “Yo, I’m happy too see y’all too, but I do have these pizza boxes in my hand.” They give him room enough to put the boxes on the counter, but they’re all coming at him with questions. “Hey, we can discuss all that later. I’ve been waitin’ to see this show all day.”

The questions stop, but the smiles never leave their faces as they tell Dizzee how much he’s been missed, and carrying their buffet of food into the room that would be their habitat for the next thirteen hours.

As the first episode plays, they’re all captivated. Ra Ra is live tweeting and stanning. He freaks out when the Luke Cage Twitter page quote tweets him. Dizzee is just as engrossed, thinking about how important this show is at a time of high racial tension, and making note of all the quotes and scenes he wants to use as Instagram captions, and incorporate into his art. The younger boys watch excitedly, thrilled to see another Black superhero on the screen.

Zeke and Shao are sitting on opposite ends of the couch. If they were in the apartment they share together with Mylene, the two would definitely be cuddling. However, they haven’t revealed their relationship to the group yet, and are trying to be inconspicuous. On Zeke’s end of the couch, he’s live tweeting, too, but not nearly as much as Ra. Actually, he’s retweeting a lot of Ra Ra’s tweets. Between watching the television screen, tweeting, and sending snaps to Mylene, Zeke’s also writing a poem in his Notes app inspired by a scene that just played.

Shao’s really trying to pay attention to the show since Luke is one of his favorite superheroes. He could easily identify with him so much as a kid. They both grew up in New York City, immersed in street life. Where Luke was in a gang, Shaolin was part of a small-time family business of drug pushers. He shakes his head of his troubled past. All that’s behind me. Now, like the superhero, he dedicates his time and resources to helping and protecting the kids from the streets.

Despite his efforts to watch the superhero take bullets like nothing and save people from violence and corruption, Shaolin can’t concentrate. His eyes keep wandering to Zeke, wondering what he thinks of the last scene or the special effects. The lovestruck puppy can’t help it! He isn’t the only one staring, though. Whenever Shao is looking at the TV, Zeke is sneaking peaks at him too. Unlike his boyfriend, Zeke felt him burning a hole in his face, but of course, Shao is oblivious to Zeke’s open staring. This kind of annoys him, because he had constructed this stupid masterplan to blow a kiss at him when their eyes meet, just to see Shaolin squirm. He loves teasing him. Then he thinks of another plan. Opening up his iMessages, he clicks on the second most recent thread: Shaolin Baetastic.

_Yo deadass, you cute as hell b  
Straight facts my guy_

Just as expected, Shaolin looks up from his phone with a grin on his face and their eyes meet. Zeke blows him a kiss then winks, and Shao’s face tries so hard to contain his uncontainable smile that his cheeks start to hurt.

**I hate you, you know that right?**

_You ain’t gotta lie to kick it, Shao. You know you can’t resist my charm._

**Yeah only in ya dreams**

_Well in those, you have a hard time resisting more than my charm…if you know what I mean_ ;)

At that, Shao puts his phone down, admitting defeat. He doesn’t know why or how he gets pulled into Zeke’s games, but he loses every time. He wasn’t sure what to call the game. “Who can make who blush the hardest?”, maybe? If that’s the case, then he clearly lost. The skin on his face is as hot as the surface of the sun and his smile cannot get any wider. Ezekiel is cracking up at the sight before him. Shao always unravels so easily.

“Yoooooo,” Ra shouts, startling everyone. “Did y’all see that shit?” His fingers tremble with excitement as he rewinds then pauses the screen. In white letters against a black screen, Marcus Kipling is listed as an assistant to the cinematographer. Dizzee has the biggest smile on his face as his friends whoop and holler their surprise and congratulations. Once the commotion dies down, it starts right back up when they start questioning Dizz. The show is forgotten since his experiences seem so much cooler. They spend hours talking, laughing, eating, and reminiscing until the sun starts peaking through the beige curtains.

“Damn, it’s almost seven,” Ra announces after checking the time on his phone, his voice heavy with sleepiness. He yawns, causing the other three conscious bodies to do the same. Boo Boo and Napoleon had fallen asleep about an hour ago.

“So, are we gonna try this again when we wake up?” Zeke asks through a chuckle and they all agree.

The four friends fall into their respective places on the pallet they made in the middle of the living room floor. Zeke tries to get comfortable, but between the hard floor and absence of warmth, he can’t quite slip into unconsciousness. “Shao.”

“Yeah, baby?” he grumbles, teetering on the brink of sleep.

“I can’t sleep, come hold me.”

Shao happily obliges, snuggling against his slender frame from behind. Wrapping an arm around his waist, he pulls him closer then places a gentle kiss on the back of his neck. “I love you.”

“Love you too.”

The brothers peak open an eye to exchange knowing looks, but say nothing, before falling asleep themselves.

**Author's Note:**

> I’m pretty sure I’m gonna write a "spinoff" of Mylene/Shao/Zeke in college so look out for that :)


End file.
